09/11/2003 | KA1MDA I operated from home QTH in FN32(450' elevation). I used to do quite a bit of VHF contesting in the early 1980's, but was out of it for quite a while. This was my third VHF contest since finally getting antennas and tower set up last year.

Antennas consist of Hy-Gain 6 element beam on 50 Mhz, KLM 16 element beam on 144 Mhz, and K1FO 25 element antenna for 432 Mhz on 35 foot tower.

Had lots of fun working 6 meter openings, but 2 meter band appeared to be very flat. FM mode participation was non-existant here in Western MA. Not like the 1980's, when I remember working lots of stations on 2 meter FM!

Three hours into contest, a large tree about a mile down my street snapped, taking power lines down and plunging entire street into darkness until Midnight! Luckily, I have a 5.5 KVA sinewave inverter and a 39 KWH battery bank for back-up power, so I operated 7 hours on emergency power.

More details on UPS, station, etc. can be seen at www.ka1mda.org. -- KA1MDA